Akira is definitely one of those animes seen as a 'classic'. The animation is stunning and the colour scheme fits the cyberpunk genre perfectly. It subtly delves into topics that could've been seen as taboo for Japan. It involves slight gang culture, drug usage and prostitution and heavy sexualisation of woman. The movie depicts westernisation quite well.
Japan, now, is known for being reserved, people tend to forget Japan before the second world war. As this is set after a stated 'third world war', it could be suggesting Japan's lack of progression socially. This can be seen through the anti-government groups and the heavy corrupted government in place.
The movie creates a setting which we can most likely move towards, almost serving as a warning.
The society in which they live in : 'Neo Tokyo" is bustling with noise and colour, especially neon lights. though very briefly, we can see westernisation everywhere, from the raunchy tv shows and night bars and such. It also shows how children of a young age , highschoolers, can be easily influenced by the thrill of gang culture. People of the setting pay no attention to this and sees is as a 'boys will be boys' attitude. This is shown in the opening scenes and when the group of boys are in school. The adults don't control them.
This contrasts heavily to the fact that the government EXPERIMENTS on young children. They use them as objects and dispose of them whenever they see fit. There's two figures of authority here in this story. Science and morality. Should we dismiss human rights and disregard morals for the sake of science?
It explores morality in subtle ways as well through the relationship dynamic of the two male main characters. They act as foils for each other to highlight each ones flaws. I believe they could've explored this relationship further than a few flashbacks from Tetsuo's memory.
At the end of the day, morality won. Tetsuo could be seen with fractured morals throughout. He loses his composure around Kaneda, and begs for his help. Teaching the audience, that power comes at a cost. And that the only power that can save you is surrounding yourself with those you love. It's an extremeley clever way to express this.
The plot was indeed unique. It relies on re-occuring motifs rather than having a set storyline. The movie was a bit confusing in this way. We are jumping between the governments perspective and the anti-government party, and a few characters I didn't understand how they contributed to the storyline. The movie zooms in on each character as if they each have an important role, and their actions are significant. However this was highly confusing.
Akira is a definite 8/10 for its thrills and unique story line. It isn;t easy to forget and has left an impresionable mark on me.